Archives for 2008

Hillary Clinton, last night:

“You know, the hits I’ve taken in life are nothing compared to what goes on every single day in the lives of people across our country.”

John Edwards, December 13th:

What’s not at stake are any of us. All of us are going to be just fine no matter what happens in this election. But what’s at stake is whether America is going to be fine.

Jack Stanton, fictional character in Primary Colors, 1996:

“Y’know, I’ve taken some hits in this campaign. It hasn’t been easy for me, or my family. It hasn’t been fair, but it hasn’t been anything compared to the hits a lot of you take every day.”

Bill Clinton, 1992:

“The hits that I took in this election are nothing compared to the hits the people of this state and this country have been taking for a long time.”

That is why Hillary is running as the experience candidate. You have experienced it all before. I guess we can call that experience you can Xerox (was there a more cringeworthy moment in the night? You could just tell she was given that line from Wolfson or Penn).

And before I get 1500 testy Hillary fans in here, let me be clear- I don’t think Hillary did anything wrong appropriating this rhetoric last night. It was a nice end to a good debate. I do think this shows how baseless the plagiarism charges she and her staff levelled at Obama last week were, and demonstrates the kind of crap we will get from a Clinton White House once Hillary and her flunkies take over. And that really has been the story for this election. Hillary is a great candidate, but she has a terribly flawed coterie of scummy advisors.

(via Josh Marshall, Dan Drezner, and Ben Smith who put this all together)

The Experience CandidatePost + Comments (121)

Hillary.

This story is sucking all the oxygen out of tonight’s debate, which is pretty much Hillary’s last chance for Obama to stumble. Check out the memeorandum coverage of what blogs are talking about:

And that is only the top half. If you go there right now, it scrolls down so long would have to attach two more screenshots.

It is all McCain, all the time, and the same can be expected for the next few news cycles, in which one of two things will happen. Either they will find some concrete evidence of McCain being in bed with lobbyists (and not in the carnal way) and that will dominate the news, or the whole thing will be debunked, and the next few news cycles will be dedicated to how the NY Times got it so wrong and what impact this will have for McCain’s future.

Either way, this hurts Hillary. Obama could basically go to the debate tonight and drool on himself, and it will be given very little attention, because the McCain story is all that matters right now.

Another Loser in the McCain StoryPost + Comments (146)

I think Will Bunch is right that the NY Times story will rally right-wingers to McCain’s defense:

f Karl Rove were brought out of retirement to help elect John McCain president, even he in all his evil genius could not have a schemed up a better way to breathe new life into his fellow Republican’s campaign than the New York Times’ inept effort to tie the Arizona senator to a comely young lobbyist.

Simply put, as it’s playing out right now, the story was — probably unintentionally, although who knows — timed perfectly to help out McCain. Its insinuations of an improper relationship between the powerful senator and Vicki Iseman came too late to hurt McCain with the “values voters” in the GOP primaries, but at exactly the right time to rally right-wing talk radio against the Times, and thus for a candidate they can now support in November while holding their collective nose.

I think that is still a net win for the Democratic party. There is nothing that will hurt McCain more with the independent voters he and Obama both will be attempting to woo than for McCain to have the stench and odor of the right-wing oozing all over the place. Let them rush to his aid, let them scream “ONE OF US, ONE OF US” from the highest mountaintops. This will only help to remind people what they are going to get should the pull the lever for the Straight Talk Express- four more years of a Limbaugh/NRO/Red State approved President.

McCain’s saving grace with independents and disaffected Republicans was that he stood up to Bush and the nuts occasionally (but never when it really mattered). Let the loonies make him one of them. That is a GOOD thing for the Democrats, and should make a great bumpersticker:

“John McCain, Limbaugh Certified and Approved”

Mind you, this is without any real evidence of wrong-doing on McCain’s part. He may be innocent, and now he gets to carry the baggage of the far right, anyway. Sleazy, but good for the Democrats.

And one more thing- McCain is going to be forced to appoint a wingnut approved VP, probably someone from the south, to “round out” his ticket. The more the maverick takes on the taint of the crazy right, the worse his chances get in the general election.

*** Update ***

As a side note, I do think the “affair” aspects of this story are sleazy, and I think many on the right are correct in noting the hypocrisy taking place. The Times should have focused on this, as Will Bunch writes:

That despite portraying himself as a campaign reformer and a “straight talker” battling the political culture of Washington, McCain has maintained close ties with lobbyists with billion-dollar business stakes in legislation before his committee, flew with them to fundraisers on their clients’ plush corporate jets, and even hit them up to fund a non-profit that was meant to push reform.

I really, really detest this kind of stuff. I hated the thinly sourced rumors about Edwards, and it isn’t right now with McCain.

I DisagreePost + Comments (73)